How Important Is Video On Social Media?

Social media is changing how we consume all types of content, from news to entertainment. It has this in common with something else that has exploded in the online marketing world. That’s right – video. Video on social media is now the dominating force in today’s marketing world. In February 2017, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that he sees video as a ‘megatrend.’

However, this has happened because video is an extremely effective way to getting information in a quick and engaging way.

Now, social media platforms across the board are following suit. Whether you’re scrolling down Instagram, Facebook or Twitter, the answer’s the same: video is taking over.

You often can’t stop your scroll and see no video at all in the section you are looking at.

A telling way of realising how popular video on social media has become is trying to listen to music on a separate app and turning video sound on on the social media feed you are browsing. It’s guaranteed that your music will keep being interrupted by the amount of autoplay video that now pops up.

But you may still be wondering WHY this has happened on platforms where text and images previously dominated.

Here’s a rundown of why video on social media is so important in marketing today.

Social media is where your audience spends a lot of their time.

Today most people get pretty much all of their content – whether that’s news, entertainment, or self-help – from social media.

People follow accounts that inspire them, entertain them, and keep them informed about the world.

If this is where your audience is spending the majority of their time, you need to be taking advantage of this by sharing your video on social media.

It’s important to note that you should be optimising your social video for the particular platform it will be on. For example, Instagram video should be in a square format and is often made to loop for a smooth viewing experience.

Social video helps you stand out.

Video on social media is important because social platforms are so saturated with the same kind of content.

Video helps you to present refreshing and interesting content to your followers. It also shows that you put work into your content and therefore you are worth a follow!

Compared to text and images, it’s much easier to be original and exciting with video on social media.

Think of all the different effects, sounds and visuals you can play with.

Social media is a significant part of content marketing.

Content marketing itself is part of digital marketing. Content marketing has the purpose of bringing value to your customers, not just something to purchase.

This may include interesting facts, insights into the company, or how-to videos.

Social media is perfect for content marketing. Users expect this kind of worthwhile content on their feeds, so are more likely to keep you around if you share interesting video on social media.

Remember, social media is where people go to be engaged and informed. Don’t be too heavy on the sales – save this for your website or marketing emails.

Social video is cost-effective.

It’s much cheaper to create quick, snappy social video than a full-blown corporate video.

What’s more, animation and motion graphics videos are usually cheaper than live-action, and this type of video is ideal for social media. Read more about why here.

Video on social media is important because it allows you to put out quality content that will guarantee engagement without breaking the bank.

A lot of brands have become successful through sharing consistent social media content that has wide appeal. This work won’t have cost them as much as big productions.

Social media is quick, engaging, and tailored to the user.

This is why video and social media go hand in hand. Video shares the same goal of sharing information, fast.

On top of this, content needs to be of interest to the audience consuming it.

Finally, both social media and video are designed to keep an audience’s engagement for as long as possible. That’s why your feeds show you brand new content every time you refresh them. They’re trying to increase your screen time, for better or for worse!

Video merges perfectly with this type of platform.

Social video improves your SEO.

Social media platforms are fast becoming search engines themselves. It is becoming much more convenient to search a topic on Twitter to find what people are saying right now about it than read through published articles on Google.

This is why you should be utilising social media as another place to secure excellent search rankings.

Using video on social media will make your content more noticeable within social media searches.

Remember to fully optimise your social video with your target keywords if you want to improve your SEO in this way.

Social video can take advantage of trending topics.

As we’ve already pointed out, social media is your audience’s source of quick and ever-changing information.

Brands often take advantage of trends to stay relevant to their audience’s interests at that time.

If you can find a way to make a trend or current topic relevant to your brand, this can be a successful way to reach a wider audience and increase your engagement.

If your take on the trend goes viral, it will massively boost your brand awareness.

Viral social videos that respond to trends are usually disruptive. This can be really successful for brands. Check out some examples of disruptive marketing in this post.

All of these things have a knock-on effect, of course. If you’re successful in targeting trends, you’re also likely to see a boost in your sales.

Social video can quickly share breaking news.

Got a company development you want to share with the world, but worried it’ll become less relevant the more time you spend on your announcement?

Easy – create a quick social video using simple animation or motion graphics. This will attract the interest of your audience from the first glance. Afterwards, they’ll come away aware of your company’s current movements.

This is a great alternative to a press release, which may take a while to come out in the news.

With social video you can track engagement.

Finally, what’s so easy about social media is that platforms often have built-in insights tool so you can monitor interaction on your posts.

Because you can find out what you’re doing well so easily, you’re then able to implement the right changes in your future social videos. If you’re curious about how to create a video marketing strategy, read more here.

For example, Instagram has its Insights feature that allows you to assess likes, comments, impressions, profile visits and much more.

Twitter Analytics is a similar feature, in which you can view the level of impressions and engagement your tweets are receiving.

How many of these benefits were you aware of? If you’re already using video on social media, which of them has your business experienced?

Stada Media can create high-quality, head-turning social video for your business that will achieve your goals. Get in touch with us here.

Want to learn even more about video marketing? Browse our other blog posts here!